Southwest Baltimore shooting claims life of 16-year-old boy

Victim shot in head

Steps from a weathered bench proclaiming Baltimore the "Greatest City in America," a pool of blood marked the spot where a 16-year-old boy was fatally shot early Wednesday.

Officers said Bruce Benn was shot in the head at about 1 a.m. while standing in the 1900 block of W. Lombard St., and taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where he was pronounced dead at about 3 a.m.

Police did not provide additional details or indicate whether they knew of a motive or suspects. On Wednesday morning, people milling about the trash-strewn Carrollton Ridge neighborhood where the shooting occurred said they didn't know anything about what happened, while a police officer stood on a street corner as two detectives assigned to the case canvassed the area.

School officials confirmed that Benn was a student at the Augusta Fell Savage Institute for Visual Arts, in Harlem Park. A law enforcement source said Benn had no juvenile criminal record.

Benn is the 12th juvenile slain in Baltimore this year.

Anyone with information was asked to call homicide detectives at 410-396-2100.